Theological term
Substitutionary Death
3 sermons · All terms
The Deliverance of the Psalmist, Part 4
Psalm 18:46–50 closes with a threefold ascription of praise to the God who delivers His anointed King — a King who is not merely David but David's greater Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The passage is expounded under four movements: the praise of God as the living Rock (v. 46), God as the God of vengeance and victory (v. 47), God as the God of deliverance and destruction (v. 48), and God as the God of grace and glory (v. 49), all grounded in the Davidic covenant of 2 Samuel 7. The sermon presses the church to find in the invincibility of God's covenant kingdom the steel needed to persevere through present affliction, and to ground all worship in the theological confession that the Lord lives, that Christ's righteousness is imputed to His people, and that God's promises are yea and amen in His Son.
The Object of Christian Boasting
Galatians 6:14–15 presents Paul's absolute refusal to boast in anything except the cross of Christ, set against the Judaizers who boasted in circumcision and religious accomplishment. This sermon expounds the cross as both the object of Christian boasting and the ground of a comprehensive covenantal transformation — the death of the old world order and the inauguration of new creation in Christ. The sermon moves from the subjective experience of dying to the world's pleasures and religious merits, to the objective reality that God in Christ has ushered in a new age through the finished work at Calvary. Hearers are called to examine what they would say on the day of judgment, for that answer reveals the present object of their boasting.
Jesus Was Born to Reign
Christ's appearance before Pontius Pilate in John 18:33–38 forces a confrontation with the nature of his kingdom and his identity as king. The sermon examines three particulars from this exchange — the issue Pilate raises, the clarification Jesus gives, and the response Jesus offers — showing that the incarnation is inseparable from the crown: Christ was born not merely as a helpless infant but as the eternal king whose kingdom originates not from man but from God, and whose conquest advances not by military power but by truth. The passage calls every hearer to reckon with the sovereign reign of Christ and to believe the gospel, knowing that what one does with Jesus determines one's eternal destiny.